ASN: Steffen Shines and NY Purple Bulls May Push Toronto FC

Main League Soccer’s single-elimination spherical is full, with New York, Columbus, Vancouver, and Houston superior to the convention semifinals. Brian Sciaretta shares his insights on these matches.

BY

Brian Sciaretta

Posted
October 28, 2017
11:00 AM

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THE FIRST ROUND of the 2017 Main League Soccer playoffs are within the historical past books and whereas not one of the video games have been nice, there have been a number of nice performances. Vancouver and New York stood out whereas Kansas Metropolis seemed drained and in want of a change. What will probably be remembered, nonetheless, was the goalkeeping efficiency in entrance of an enormous crowd in Atlanta.

Steffen shines within the highlight

The largest story of the primary spherical of the playoffs is that Zack Steffen lived as much as the lofty expectations. After taking part in so properly down the stretch for Columbus, Steffen was masterful towards Atlanta and proved to be the distinction. Not solely did he maintain Atlanta and its potent assault scoreless over 120 minutes, he then made two huge saves within the shootout to ship Crew SC into the Convention Semifinals the place it’ll face New York Metropolis FC.

Already taking part in with the emotion over a pending transfer to Austin, Texas, Steffen is popping within the kinds of efficiency that might result in an prolonged playoff run.

Additionally clear: Zack Steffen clearly deserves a shot to compete for a beginning spot on america nationwide group, which desperately wants a brand new group of goalkeepers after the Tim Howard, Brad Guzan, Nick Rimando trio has been within the combine for a era.

Invoice Hamid and Ethan Horvath are robust contenders as properly, however Steffen’s athleticism and quickness are first fee and his determination making has improved mightily over the season.

Royer makes the Purple Bulls a contender

After watching the New York Purple Bulls pound Chicago 4-0 on Wednesday evening it grew to become clear that this group us significantly better than a typical No. 6 seed. There may be loads of expertise on Jesse Marsch’s squad—and a wholesome Daniel Royer makes an enormous distinction.

Royer was MLS participant of the month in July however missed loads of time after struggling an harm in August. Whereas he was away, the Purple Bulls struggled and practically missed the playoffs. The Austrian returned within the last weeks earlier than the playoffs and is now hitting his stride. Towards Chicago he scored a really good purpose and helped overwhelm Chicago’s protection.

With Royer, the Purple Bulls have a viable assault past Bradley Wright-Phillips. His return creates house for Sacha Kljestan, Felipe, Sean Davis, and Tyler Adams to push ahead, giving the Purple Bulls extra scoring choices.

Toronto FC is up subsequent for the Purple Bulls and will probably be fascinating to look at these two groups sq. off.  

Get properly quickly Mihailovic

Mihailovic was a part of Chicago group that had performed very properly to rebuild in 2017 and he match very properly into Velkjo Paunovic’s plans. The U.S. youth worldwide additionally seemed poised to maybe be a part of January camp this winter with the nationwide group. Now that must wait.

Whitecaps flex muscle mass

One of the best group efficiency of the opening spherical went to the Vancouver Whitecaps, which pounded San Jose 5-0 on Wednesday evening. It was a lopsided win as the house group curised into the Western Convention Semifinal the place it’ll face the Seattle Sounders.

Seattle may be the favourite on this matchup however Vancouver has a wave of momentum regardless of having a mediocre +1 purpose differential on the season. Proper now every part is clicking for Carl Robinson’s males. When this group is on it may rating objectives at a deadly tempo.

Sporting Kansas Metropolis fades out

On September 24, Sporting Kansas Metropolis defeated the LA Galaxy 2-1 for its second win in a row. That was the group’s last win of the season and it had simply two attracts in its last six. On Thursday, it was eradicated after a boring 1-0 extra-time loss to Houston.

Little has gone proper for Peter Vermes and his group since buying and selling Dom Dwyer. Heading into 2018, Sporting Kansas Metropolis seems like a group that wants loads of work. It has some gifted youthful gamers but it surely has an previous core with gamers like Graham Zusi, Matt Besler, Benny Feilhaber, and Roger Espinoza. To make issues worse, the membership misplaced Erik Palmer-Brown to Manchester Metropolis for nothing after failing to signal him to a brand new deal.

Sporting Kansas Metropolis has been among the many finest groups in MLS for a few years and nonetheless managed to win MLS Cup in 2017. However the roster would possibly want a significant overhaul quickly.